Return

Who: Everyone
Where: Hangar- G
When: After docking back on the Dwarf

Two MED’s met the group as they disembarked from the shuttle; the three metre high combat droids looming darkly above them as the Dwarfers walked down the access ramp, pushing Jade ahead of them on the grav-sled that Jamie had found
The doctor was responding well to her treatment, but as usual the nanites were taking their toll on their host and Jade was beginning to show signs of needing additional remedial care; so on Cassandra’s advice, they were taking her down to the medibay while the nanites finished their work

As they trooped through the corridors, Cass’s terminal pinged several times, and she pulled the handheld out to scowl at what was displayed there before silently pocketing it again

“Alright” Alex grunted, pushing himself away from the wall he was leaning against as the group emerged out onto the Promenade some ten minutes later “How was the fishing?”
Jamie favoured him with a sidelong glance as they pushed Jade past him
“Shit” he said bluntly “You missed loads of fun”
“Huh” Alex grumped, digging his hands into the pockets of his overall as he watched their retreating backs

“I’ll catch you up” Cass murmured to Katrina, tapping away at her handheld as she peeled off, back towards Alex, one of her MED’s following suit and doubling back to follow her

“Orrite” Solvay mumbled around the cig he was lighting as she approached
Cass waited while he clinked his lighter closed and blew out a cloud of smoke
“You’re really smegging lucky to be alive” she hissed “If you had taken anything worthwhile, the machines in my room would have gutted you”
“I...” Alex croaked, his mouth suddenly dry; but he stopped and shook his head - he could see that trying to explain his actions was pointless
“I trusted you” Cass continued “To say that I’m disappointed is an understatement”
She turned to leave, the MED thumping heavily aside, moving out of her way
“Hey...” Alex tried his this-has-all-been-a-misunderstanding voice
“Your privileges have been revoked” she glared back at him, her green eyes flashing angrily “Access to locations and equipment has been restricted; until, that is, you can adequately demonstrate that you’re not an untrustworthy, alcoholic dick”
“Oh, smeg you” Alex growled as she strode away



Who: Cassandra and Jade
Where: Med Lab
When: Late evening, three days later

Momentarily startled by Jade placing a gently steaming cup of coffee down on the desk in front of her, Cass glanced up from the monitor she was hunched over to murmur her thanks, before returning her attention back to the mass of data blooming on the screen before her
“You should take a break” the doctor warned “You look shattered”
Frowning and shaking her head in irritation, Cass slumped back in her chair and tiredly rubbed her face with her hands, letting them fall into her lap as she rotated the chair around to look up at Jade
“How is he?” she asked
“Stable” Jade folded her arms and perched herself on the edge of desk “...ish”
Closing her eyes, Cass breathed an almost inaudible a sigh

They could have well done without finding Jay so poorly when they returned from the gas mine; Phi, of course, had done her best while they were away, but in spite of everything, there was no escaping the fact that Jay was dying

“How long has he got?” she asked tiredly, opening her eyes to stare levelly up at the doctor when she hesitated; Jade’s old professional habits apparently dying hard “...I think we’re a little past patient confidentiality”
“Honestly?” Jade shook her head and looked away at the floor “I don’t know. Could be weeks, could be days”
“Smeg’s sake” Cass muttered
“I take it things still aren’t going well here?”
“No” Cass grumbled, sounding a little more sullenly petulant than she had intended “Nothing’s working”
Jade regarded her in sympathetic silence and gave what she hoped was an encouraging half-smile
“The only good news is that I’ve been able to do a full trawl” Cass shrugged diffidently “So I might be able to do a complete rebuild if it all goes to shit; but I’ll need some real heavy tech for that, and the nanites we got from the mine are nowhere near good enough”
“That...” Jade frowned in irritation “is inconvenient”
“It’s like I’m just jumping through hoops here” Cass snarled, struggling to keep the bitterness out of her voice “It's as if everything I could possibly conceive of, has already been anticipated, and there are a multitude of countermeasures already in place”
She shook her head and reached for her coffee
“The more analysis I do, the weirder the nanophage gets” she paused to blow across the top of the cup and to take a tentative sip “I mean, for all I know, the smegging thing could even be self-aware”
“You think that’s possible?” Jade asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise
“I wouldn’t put anything past Brittany” Cass shrugged despondently and, leaning forward, turned to place the plastic cup back onto the desk “I mean, look at this...” she gestured at the complex schematics running on the monitor “I’ve got a bunch of evolutionary algorithms running across the medical nanites, but the virus adapts to everything it gets thrown at it – Sometimes even within a single generation!”
“That is kinda weird” Jade nodded
“Tell me about it” Cass threw her hands up in frustration and slumped back into her chair to pull her legs up in front of her “I hate to say it but there’s only so much I can do here without access to more advanced facilities; and as acceptable as these nanites are for general use, I’m fast approaching the point where I’m going to need to reengineer them - and we simply don’t have those facilities here”
Looking down at Cass, Jade pursed her lips
“What are the options?” she asked “I can keep Jay going for a while longer, but the more I do, the greater the risk”
“It’s going to have to be White Wolf isn’t it?” Cass said simply “White Wolf and that Roo outpost he mentioned a while back”
“Is that such a problem?”
“Maybe” Cass shrugged “He’s something of a Pandora’s Box for me; the less I know the better”
“How so?” Jade frowned “He seems like a nice enough guy”
“Oh, there’s all sorts...” Cass sighed “Atemporality, dimensional travel, and any number of technologies that I’m really better off not knowing about”
“I mean I’ve purposefully avoided picking his brains or prying too deeply into his past” she continued “I’ve just this bad feeling there’s something there, that I really don’t want to go near... But...” she sighed and slipped her legs down from the chair to clamber to her feet “Things aren’t looking good here, so I’ll go and see him anyway – I guess it doesn’t hurt to talk”
“It’s late and you’re tired” Jade said firmly “If you’re that concerned about it, do yourself a favour and sleep on it, will you?”
“Yeah, yeah” Cass breezed as she strolled across the room towards the door “Whatever mum... G’night”

And she was gone

<ooc>
Apologies for being so quiet this week - I've had all hell on both in and out of work, so I haven't been able to progress things as much as I'd have liked
Rest assured, normal service will be resumed presently - The next post is well on the way to being finished and should (hopefully) be out sometime tomorrow, so there'll be more for everyone to do very soon
</ooc>